Concert Choir: Cantata for the Centenary of the Armistice

One-hundred years after the end of World War I, a new composition commemorating that day in history will be performed by the Penn State Concert Choir on November 11 at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the School of Music’s new recital hall.

MEMORIA: A Cantata for the Centenary of the Armistice, by Scott Eggert, was commissioned by Christopher Kiver, director of choral activities at Penn State, as part of an interdisciplinary project commemorating the armistice that ended the war. The commission was made possible in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture.

Prior to each performance, audience members will be immersed in a gallery/museum experience in Music Building I and the recital hall lobby, featuring reproductions and projections of pictures and posters from World War I, supplied by the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State and the Palmer Museum of Art.

MEMORIA: A Cantata for the Centenary of the Armistice employs English poetry created during the war years or soon after. “Debate regarding the necessity, the meaning and the ultimate value of this vast conflict began while the war was yet raging and has continued throughout the century that followed,” said Eggert. “MEMORIA is a choral cantata with instrumental accompaniment that grapples with the issues of this fundamental debate. I hope that, besides simply reminding contemporary audiences of the enormity and horror of the war, this cantata will also suggest how needful it is to hear all of the voices if one is after the truth.”